Weekly SEO news: 7 February 2006
Welcome to the latest issue of the Search Engine Facts newsletter.

This week, the Stanford University reveals how to add credibility to your web site.

In the news: Google merges Gmail with chat and it improves the spam filters for non-English web sites, Google's PayPal alternative might be on the way and more.

Our newsletter now reaches more than 100,000 subscribers worldwide. Thank you all for your support.

Table of contents:

We hope that you enjoy this newsletter and that it helps you to get more out of your website. Please pass this newsletter on to your friends.

Best regards,
Andre Voget, Johannes Selbach, Axandra CEO

1. Facts of the week: How to add credibility to your web site

The Stanford University compiled a list of 10 guidelines for building the credibility of a web site. These guidelines are based on three years of research and on several studies about that topic.

The Stanford list confirms the recommendations we gave in previous issues of this newsletter and the tips that are available in the marketing tips section in IBP. Although the information in the Stanford list is not new, it is still very important if you want to be successful with your web site.

Why is credibility important?

Credibility is crucial if you want to make money with your web site. Your web site visitors must have trust in your company. It's pointless to spend a lot of work on getting visitors from search engines if these visitors don't convert to sales.

The Stanford guidelines for web credibility:

  • Make it easy to verify the accuracy of the information on your site.
  • Show that there's a real organization behind your site.
  • Highlight the expertise in your organization and in the content and services you provide.
  • Show that honest and trustworthy people stand behind your site.
  • Make it easy to contact you.
  • Design your site so it looks professional (or is appropriate for your purpose).
  • Make your site easy to use -- and useful.
  • Update your site's content often (at least show it's been reviewed recently).
  • Use restraint with any promotional content (e.g., ads, offers).
  • Avoid errors of all types, no matter how small they seem.

What does this mean to your web site?

Make sure that your web pages are optimized for human web surfers before you start with your search engine optimization activities. Your web pages must be appealing, credible and convincing.

If done right, getting more visitors means getting more sales

When you're sure that your web pages generate sales, optimize them for high search engine rankings. Focus on people first, then on search engines.

If you have convincing web pages, getting more web site visitors means getting more sales. These web site promotion tools help you to get as many visitors as possible.

2. Search engine news of the week

Google merges Gmail with chat

"Google [...] was set to launch Gmail Chat, which will let users send instant messages with one click from their e-mail account, see when contacts are online and save the chat history like an e-mail message."


Ramping up on international web spam

"This week [Google's] webspam team continued ramping up our anti-spam efforts by removing bmw.de from our index, and ricoh.de will be removed soon for similar reasons."

Rumours mount over Google's internet plan

"Google is working on a project to create its own global internet protocol (IP) network, a private alternative to the internet controlled by the search giant, according to sources who are in commercial negotiation with the company."

PayPal prepares for a challenge from Google

    "For the last nine months, Google has recruited online retailers to test GBuy, according to one person briefed on the service. GBuy will feature an icon posted alongside the paid-search ads of merchants, which Google hopes will tempt consumers to click on the ads, says this person. GBuy will also let consumers store their credit-card information on Google."

Search engine newslets

  • Ask Jeeves announces research center in Italy.
  • Play the "job at Google" adventure game.
  • Kazzoom is a new search engine.
  • TVEyes allows you to search TV and radio programs.
  • Take a look at the Super Bowl XL commercials on Google Video.
  • Google to get AdSense competition from Amazon?
  • Google's toys and free food amuse ABC.
  • Google localized, censored in Azerbaijan?
  • Take a look at AdWords in unusual places (fun).
  • Google publishes a statement about human rights.
  • Google releases Google News in 10 new languages.
3. Articles of the week

FAQ: When Google is not your friend

"Google's recent legal spat with the U.S. Department of Justice highlights not only what information search engines record about us but also the shortcomings in a federal law that's supposed to protect online privacy."


Search for an edge on Google

"The abstruse science of search engine advertising has become the focus of one of the hottest technology races around. [...] They will have to walk some careful lines on privacy and how they collect personal data."



Click fraud

    "The “click fraud” issue has now caught the eye of regulators at the Securities and Exchange Commission. [...] It’s only a matter of time before the commission takes a closer look to determine how much of a problem it is for these companies and whether or not it’s improperly inflating revenues."



Verizon executive calls for end to Google's 'free lunch'

    "A Verizon Communications Inc. executive yesterday accused Google Inc. of freeloading for gaining access to people's homes using a network of lines and cables the phone company spent billions of dollars to build."

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4. Preview of the next ARELIS version -part 1

We're currently working on a new ARELIS version. The new ARELIS version will have many new features and many improvements.

We think that it will be the best and most complete link exchange, link popularity and off-site web promotion solution. In the next few weeks, we'll show a preview of some of the new ARELIS features in this newsletter.

Part 1: Create link pages that don't look like link pages

The new ARELIS version will allow you to use HTML tags in your link descriptions. That means that you can use HTML formatting and individual links in every link description. That will allow you to give your link pages a 100% individual look.

Your current links page might look like this:

Great site about brown shoes

This is a site about brown shoes. If you want to learn more about this interesting topic, you should really visit this site.

All you need to know about green shoes

Green shoes are even more interesting than brown shoes. Actually, they aren't interesting at all but interesting enough for this example.

With the next ARELIS version, the same page can look like this:

This page is all about shoes. I have collected a variety of resources about shoes and you can find them all below. Actually, you cannot click the links but that doesn't matter because this is just an example. In the new ARELIS version, every category page can have its own description paragraphs.

In these paragraphs, I could explain how interesting shoes are and why the information below is so great. Unfortunately, I don't know that much about shoes and I don't find them that interesting.

This is a site about brown shoes. If you want to learn more about this interesting topic, you should really visit this site.

brown shoeThis sentence also belongs to the brown shoes link. It's in a new paragraph because you will be able to add paragraphs in the link description in the new ARELIS version. As you can see, you can also add images at any place in your link description. The shoe on the left doesn't look pretty but it's a nice example.

Green shoes are even more interesting than brown shoes. Actually, they aren't interesting at all but interesting enough for this example. Amazing how this page doesn't look like a link page at all.

As you can see, this looks like normal text on a web page that contains a few links. It's impossible for search engines to find out that the page is not a normal page of your site. The new ARELIS version can create link pages that don't look like links pages.

In addition, every category and sub category page can have its individual description in the new ARELIS version. That means that your link directory pages can be 100% genuine and individual pages with useful and unique content.

For example, each category page could begin with a few paragraphs that explain the category topic. That's good because these paragraphs distinguish the category page from other pages of your web site and they add additional content that makes the category page more interesting for both your visitors and search engines alike.

Of course, the example above shows only one possibility. You can do much more with the new ARELIS version and you can use any design you want.

It's a free update for registered users

The feature above is only one of many new features that will be available in the new ARELIS version. The new ARELIS version is planned for this quarter. We'll announce its official release in this newsletter.

Although the new version will have many more features than the current ARELIS version, it will be a free update for registered users of the current ARELIS version.

If you haven't tested the current ARELIS version yet, you should do so now.

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5. Recommended resources
Successful search engine optimization and website promotion with proven software tools

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Thousands of businesses all over the world use our products to get more visitors, more customers and more sales. We offer the tools you need to make your website successful.

Your success is important to us! Try our products now and get more visitors, more customers and more sales.

It's easy: try our products and if you don't like them, you'll get your money back. We're sure that our tools will help you to improve your bottom line.

It's really 100% risk-free for you. You have nothing to lose and a lot to win. Benefit from more customers and more sales and try our products now.

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